Urban Exploration – Industrial Disease

Sometimes entire industries cease to exist – superseded by bigger, better, shinier and the more environmental friendly.  Comparative advantage. Competitive advantage.  Often these are the industry killers.  Other times it’s economic rationalisation.  Seeking a cost benefit by killing an industry in one area to consolidate in another.  Leaving memories and skeletons behind.

The ways of industry are never static.  They change, they develop, they evolve.  It’s the same with people.  Life is about change, development and evolution.

At the end of another year, I sometimes wonder how the hell I got here.  Like waking up and realising you missed your stop, or worse, you’re on the wrong train altogether.  I’ve always chased adventure.  Always needed to peek behind closed doors.   I used to explore without a camera for the pure sake of exploration.  Being in the moment and enjoying the thrill of the find more than thinking about the composition.  When I first picked up a camera it made sense to photograph the places I found.  And I was happy with telling a story via a singular image.  Somewhere along the line, this site was born and the number of images increased.   And in my mind, the satisfaction of self expression and, perhaps even the quality of the art, decreased.  Rushing through 25 – 30 shots to create a worthy post on this site rather than agonising over and perfecting the lighting and composition of a single shot.

My priorities have shifted too.  As the local urbex scene became overcrowded, competitive, counter-productive and political, I started travelling further and further away to find the untouched locations.  As other commitments and other passions increased, my time for such adventures decreased.  It became tiring and, sometimes, a bit of a chore.  Worse, it became repetitive and uninspiring.  Trying to juggle so many conflicting priorities was making me ill.  Something had to give.

I’ve been quietly working on some new projects this year and these will come to the fore in 2018.  I have a number of locations that I have visited over the past 18 months which have yet to go online.  The images from those locations may well be my last in this format of multiple images from a single location.  I’m returning to my roots and the reasons why I picked up a camera in the first place.  And I’ll be introducing some new artistic projects which overlap with the ethos of Autopsy of Adelaide.  I hope this new chapter is well received by those of you kind enough to follow my work.  At the end of the day though, I’ll be following my passions and be all the happier and healthier for it.